


hope is the thing with feathers; daphne blake

by SlytherinLyn



Series: i can't wait to meet her, she sounds just like poetry [2]
Category: Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated (Cartoon 2010)
Genre: Any romance is pretty mild but whatever, Character Study, F/M, Gen, Songfic, but its a poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:21:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22455649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlytherinLyn/pseuds/SlytherinLyn
Summary: “Hope” is the thing with feathers -That perches in the soul -And sings the tune without the words -And never stops - at all -Or, Daphne Blake is stronger than we give her credit for.
Relationships: Daphne Blake & Velma Dinkley & Fred Jones & Norville "Shaggy" Rogers & Scooby Doo, Daphne Blake/Fred Jones
Series: i can't wait to meet her, she sounds just like poetry [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1615051
Comments: 1
Kudos: 49





	hope is the thing with feathers; daphne blake

**Author's Note:**

> Hope is the Thing With Feathers - Emily Dickinson
> 
> Please leave a comment if you enjoyed!! I really love hearing from people who liked my work.

_“Hope” is the thing with feathers -  
That perches in the soul -_

Daphne Blake was born into money, which meant she was born into hope. She was the tethering factor of Mystery Incorporated. Without her, they fell apart.

Of course, that was true for any of them, but Daphne was different. She was the reason the gang was together, why they were so close. 

When she was four years old, her parents introduced her to a boy with shaggy blond hair who, at the time, was called Norville. They set up frequent playdates between the two in the hopes that it would give her a potential suitor if any others fell through. It didn’t work as they’d hoped, but she found a friend in him all the same.

In fourth grade, she found herself in a class with Velma Dinkley. The school had finally allowed her to move up a grade, hence the belated meeting. The girl was anti-social, and didn’t seem to know how to talk to the other children. Daphne sought her out at lunch and talked to her the whole time. She introduced her to Norville, who at that point had adopted the name Shaggy, the next day.

In seventh grade, the trio met Fred Jones Jr. Or rather, Fred Jones Jr. met Daphne Blake who introduced him to the others. They sat next to each other in English and as soon as Daphne saw Shaggy and Velma at lunch, she declared that she would marry Fred Jones Jr. someday. Daphne Jones became the cursive words doodled in the margins of her papers until the day came where Fred asked if he could sit with her at lunch.

And then they were four.

_And sings the tune without the words -  
And never stops - at all -_

Daphne was the gang’s caretaker in a good many ways. She was willing and ready to help any of them at any moment in time, and she made sure to always talk to the others when they seemed troubled.

She made sure Velma never stayed up too late working on her homework or projects, convincing her into bed with promises of new equipment and a trip to the library together. When the four practically lived together towards the end, Daphne would always come find Velma before she went to sleep, and when she inevitably found her asleep at her work, covered her in the softest blanket she had.

She was Fred’s rock. When the mayor got too much, when there were too many disappointed glances and indifferent dismissals, too many “Not Now Fred”s, she was there. She took him to the trap museum and let him tell her all about how Joe Ruby and Gary Cole revolutionized the trapping scene back in 1983. She cursed all his parents in the same breath when Brad and Judy betrayed them and held him for as long as he needed as he cried that night for the parents he could have had.

She gave Shaggy a sister. Shaggy had always felt best around other people, a result of a very lonely childhood in a very lonely house. She threatened all the people that were mean to him about Scooby or his appetite with her fists and her parents’ money. She kept away all the what ifs always lingering in his mind. Because, so what if there’s a chance that girl likes him or his parents might not notice he hadn’t been home for a week or Scooby might turn evil and try to kill him? They’ll all either happen or they won’t, and it won’t do Shaggy any good to ponder on which it will be.

_And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -  
And sore must be the storm -_

Daphne Blake, however, was not without her own problems. She grew up knowing she could never measure up to her sisters, and that her parents were the first to introduce this concept to her. Her parents never expected anything of her, which was a burden in and of itself. Daphne had discovered from a very young age that she could do anything and her parents would be supportive.

But sometimes, she needed to be pushed back. She needed to be refuted, told no, because if a child never hears no then a yes means nothing. Daphne came out the other end with sound morals but a complete disregard for herself or her achievements. Her parents spoke in passive aggressive tones when she presented herself to them. Her martial arts trophies were met with _that’s wonderful darling_ in a distracted tone and a _did you take Delilah’s trophies again_ when they forgot she was no longer five years old.

She got her first tattoo when she was fifteen years old. A small branch of Daphne flowers on the small of her back. 

Her parents never even notice.

_That could abash the little Bird  
That kept so many warm -_

Her parents held her to one expectation that Daphne idealized into something she could bear. She was to marry a nice man, someone she could bring to charity galas so all the donors could gossip about how her new last name sounded or how she was letting herself go.

The thing that young Daphne never understood was why she had to take a new last name when she had a perfectly good one already. She liked her name, all of it. As she grew, however, she came around to the idea. She began to imagine herself with countless different last names so as to get used to the idea. 

She met Fred Jones Jr. and knew she would marry him someday.

Privately, she still preferred Daphne Blake to Daphne Jones.

_I’ve heard it in the chillest land -  
And on the strangest Sea -_

After the end of the world chewed them up and spit them out into a world that wasn’t theirs, they were lost. They retreated to an empty guest bedroom in Daphne’s mansion (not the one Fred had lived in before. Not where they once were haunted by different demons) and collapsed in the room together. 

Daphne and Fred slept on the bed together. They never once did anything sexual, too focused on the loss of their lives to think about love yet. Fred seemed lifeless, like a body without a soul. Shaggy and Scooby curled up on the fold-out couch, holding each other so tightly it seemed as if they’d never let go. Velma took a corner that held a large armchair and curled herself into a tight ball. She didn’t talk to the others.

Daphne is the one to pick up the pieces. 

She picks herself up out of her grief first. They will have time to mourn later, she decides, right now is the time to keep moving. She starts with Fred. She talks to him, coaxes him into speaking about his interests and what he wants to eat tomorrow and when they should next go shopping for clothing. He comes out of his shell a little bit more each day, starting conversations more often, speaking unprompted.

Shaggy and Scooby go together. Daphne knows they need each other to get out of this hole they’ve fallen into. She does not force them apart, she knows what that would do to them. She pulls them into activities together, playing board games they’ve never heard of in teams of Fred and Daphne and Shaggy and Scooby.

Velma is the hardest. Losing Marcie was hard enough for her, but seeing her alive again was terrible for her. Seeing her alive and well was wonderful but seeing a Marcie that wasn’t her Marcie had caused a panic in Velma none of them knew how to deal with.

They pull her out together, Daphne holding her hand and the others reeling them back in. They surround her with love and affirmations and Daphne whispers she loved you she loves you into her hair as Velma cries in her arms.

Daphne has always been their rock. She is what grounds them to reality, even when reality has changed.

_Yet - never - in Extremity,  
It asked a crumb - of me._

Daphne lived her whole adolescence without a rock of her own. She was her own caretaker, her own hero. And that was fine for her.

Until she realized just how badly she needed someone to hold her tight and whisper that it will all be okay until she believes it. She has three people who will do that for her now.

And she is their rock. And they are hers.


End file.
